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Post by Italian Stallion on Dec 29, 2004 22:22:50 GMT -5
hi... Neanderthal was HAIRY (he lived during the ICE AGE)... ... Eskimos live in artic conditions and aren't hairy. Swedes live in the arctic circle and aren't hairy. Russian aren't particularly hairy. Just because people (even Neanderthals) live in cold climes doesn't mean they develope some sort of fur coat to protect them from the elements. There is no proof that Neanderthals were hairy. The only reason that they are portrayed as hairy is that anthropolgist place them below H. Sapiens on the evolutionary ladder...ergo closer to apes (which are hairy... yet live in Tropical climes).
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Post by Italian Stallion on Dec 29, 2004 22:38:53 GMT -5
Also, prominent noses are an adaptation to cold air. Larger Nasal chambers warm and humidify incoming cold/dry air. Reduce sinus and respiratory infections. This adaptation is what happened in H. Sapiens living in Eurasia. Neanderthals had stocky,naturally musculature builds which would classify them as bodybuilders by today's standards; they had cranial capacities that were larger than H.Sapiens, especially in the occiptal area. If Europeans do have some Neanderthal in them today, thats what probably gave them the edge over other races today. Being Brainy and aggressive are a lethal combo.
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Post by Faelcind on Dec 29, 2004 23:09:40 GMT -5
There is no clear correlation between brain Size and intelligence. Look at Flores man brain the size of chimp smaller then austrolopith but lithic technology signficantly in advance of his much larger brained erectus ancestors.
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Rocky
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Post by Rocky on Dec 30, 2004 0:42:28 GMT -5
Prominent noses are due to an adaptation to cold! Lots of humans have adapted to cold without having prominent noses, the majority of Asians living in Siberia, mongolia, China, Korea and Japan for example. A prominent nose may have more to do with humidifying hair before it enters the bronchia. It is more likely an adaptation to very dry conditions. Think of the Irano-Afghan and Armenoid noses. Or it may be an adaptation that suits both dry hot and dry cold conditions.
What do you think?
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Post by Italian Stallion on Dec 30, 2004 0:57:33 GMT -5
you know, when I was taking a couple of physical Anthropolgy classes in Uni, they never could explain why nasal adaptations only happened in Euro/Eurasians and not in "Orientals". Perhaps the humidity in Siberia/mongolia was higher than in Europe? ?Who knows. Anyone wanna do a google search on relative humidity in different regions and different eras?
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Post by Faelcind on Dec 30, 2004 1:07:02 GMT -5
The usually argument for the shape of Asian faces is an adaption to extreme cold where extremeties were more likely to become frost bitten, as often happened to europeans noses in artic conditions.
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Rocky
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Post by Rocky on Dec 30, 2004 9:23:27 GMT -5
I am assuming the Inuit are more like East Asians than Amerindians. Inuits are the humans most adapted to living in Arctic conditions which though very cold is also in terms of precipitation very low, and they have high bridged narrow noses unlike the typical East Asian nose. The Inuit nose shape must be an adaptation to Arctic conditions of cold and dry conditions.
East Asian features found in Mongols, North Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and Paleoasiatic people may be adaptations to severe cold and dry conditions. Deserts can be quite cold, for example the Gobi desert. And the fat lidded eyes with epicanthic folds are useful in protecting the eyes from the sand or the snow blasted winds and severe glare.
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Post by human2 on Dec 30, 2004 9:59:57 GMT -5
I am assuming the Inuit are more like East Asians than Amerindians. Inuits are the humans most adapted to living in Arctic conditions which though very cold is also in terms of precipitation very low, and they have high bridged narrow noses unlike the typical East Asian nose. The Inuit nose shape must be an adaptation to Arctic conditions of cold and dry conditions. East Asian features found in Mongols, North Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and Paleoasiatic people may be adaptations to severe cold and dry conditions. Deserts can be quite cold, for example the Gobi desert. And the fat lidded eyes with epicanthic folds are useful in protecting the eyes from the sand or the snow blasted winds and severe glare. Inuits do not have high-bridged noses generally. Here is an Inuit and his distribution: from Adapting to Climate Extrems anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_2.htmEastern Asiatics generally fall between tropical and Western Asiatic people in terms of nasal height. It is also a population recently expanded out the colder, more arctic conditions, so that's not a good example of what a nose will do in cold dry air, or hot dry air for that matter. Middle Eastern people also seem to be partly out of the recent expansion from the Irano-Afghan region, where the highlands are colder. There is a pattern though. Of the high-rooted people in the world, all of them live in places with one or more of these following climate attributes: high altitudes (Irano-Afghans, Tibetans, Andean Indians, highland Papuans), cold continental weather, (extreme South American Indians, Plains Indians, Europeans), dry regions (Semites and all of the above except Papuans). The high-rooted nose of certain Amazonian Indians and SE Asians can be explained through recent expansion
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:36:03 GMT -5
surely these medical speculations may have a lot of truth... and may explain Europeans distinctive character (somewhat more aggressive, somewhat more intellectual, or somethings....) the future holds a lot of interesting explanations on ourselves I guess.... check the link below: www.rdos.net/eng/asperger.htmit is necessary to take on account there is no definite answer to most of our quests towards our own origins.... but there are definite some clues or hints... now the text follows: Credits Elizabeth Morgan Helped me with background material about various diseases like hemochromatosis, Factor V Leiden, cystic fibrosis, SLE, other autoimmune diseases, and found various links to supportative evidence Various autistic and ADHD individuals on discussion forums Helped me with ideas about behavior and provided comments about the theory Abstract This theory aims at giving a credible explanation for why up to 10% in some parts of the world are classified by psychiatry as disordered. Psychiatry themselves has long been on the wrong track, and lack any coherent theory. Some other people in our society like to put all the blame on the parents, and this has caused considerable harm to many families. Recently, some researchers have shown the large amount of genes contributing to these proposed disorders, as well as providing links between virtually all disorders. It's also very clear that there doesn't exist any clear border's between various diagnosis, nor to normality. The main problem seems to be in the area of social relations. After a closer study of the topic, it's clear that the social problems are not defects. They are simply different functions, lack of function and sometimes additional functions. The problem is how to explain this in an evolutionary model. Differences in innate, social behaviors are very big disadvantages. They can only develop in isolation. Long isolation. All this lead me to study our history. The only isolated population in recent times, that had been isolated for a long time, was Neanderthals. Closer study of them revealed that anthropology wanted to make sure to exclude them from our gene-pool. However, the reason for this is obscure. The reasoning is only based on phylogenic analysis of mitochondria-DNA. The archeological evidence isn't conclusive, rather it indicates both species cohabitated for a long time in Europe. Evidence is also based on most alleles being more diverse in Africa. However, the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. If two species cohabitate for millennia, it's not very likely hybrids were frequent, and that in turn means mitochondria-DNA of the minority-contributor would be eliminated by genetic drift. Even worse, diversity was reduced by the last ice-age maximum, that caused dramatic movements and most probably a major bottleneck in Europe, but not in Africa. Closer study of European origin diseases and alleles also reveals that many alleles has originated in the period when modern humans and Neanderthals lived side-by-side in Europe. The DRD4 7R allele is associated with ADHD, and a study reveals it originated at this time. Many other properties of psychiatric disorders seems to be either attributable to Neanderthals way of life, or can be seen as winter-adaptations. The conclusion that can draw from all this, is that psychiatric disorders are no disorders or dysfunctions, rather the remains of a hybridization with Neanderthals. This should switch our current attitude from disordered to perfectly functional. It should also lead to better understanding, and new studies that will research exactly what is different. Primate evolution Primates originally were very small and evolved during the era of dinosaurs. Higher primates seems to have evolved 40 million years ago in Asia. These then spread to all parts of the world. [Primate evolution] [Primate ancestors in Asia] Oreopithecus Oreopithecus was a swamp-ape that lived 7 to 9 million years ago on an isolated island in today's Italy. It seems to be more morphologically similar to the later Australopithecus than to any other primate both craniodentally and postcranially. Homo is next in similarity to Oreopithecus while the African and Asian apes show the least morphological similarity to Oreopithecus amongst the hominoids. Oreopithecus was bipedal, just like humans, unlike the knuckle-walking African apes we supposedly are related to. Oreopithecus might be very close to the common ancestor of Pan, Homo and Gorilla. If Oreopithecus was the ancestor of humans, this would also explain a large number of aquatic adaptations found in today's humans, but not in other primate species. [Oreopithecus was an bipal ape] [Oreopithecus, ape or homini?] Australopithecus Australopithecus is most likely related to Oreopithecus, and lived in Africa 3 million years ago. It still was bipedal, but it is unlikely they are direct ancestors of humans. It's likely that Pan and Gorilla are related to Oreopithecus, but these reverted to knuckle-walking and to an arboreal life-style. Alternatively, it's possible that Pan is not at all very closely related to Homo and that the similarity in mitochondrial DNA is caused by climatic selection on the mitochondria. Homo The origin of Homo is not clear, but it is very likely that climatic factors played an important role in the evolution of Homo. At Dmanisi in Georgia, there is an 1.8 million year old Homo erectus skull. This is roughly similar to the start of the ice-ages in Eurasia. It is very likely that brain expansion was largely driven by the unstable climate of Eurasia, which required constant adaptations from their inhabitants. These selective pressures never existed in Africa. Africa instead acted a lot like a refugee area where larger populations could survive for extended periods of time. Frequent hybridization between advanced, but sparse, Eurasian Homo and refugee African Homo ensured that Homo evolved larger brains. [The ice ages started 1.7 to 2.5 million years ago] [Dmanisi skull dated to 1.8 million years] The cold adapted species Rather than describing all the species or sub-species paleoanthropology likes us to believe existed in Eurasia, it's more convenient to describe them as one single species / population evolving from Homo Erectus to Neanderthals. A species like humans need to evolve some mechanism that ensures that males participate in childrearing. The cold adapted species changed from a promiscuous primate species into a endogamous, group-bonded species. Their social structure looked a lot like the bonobo structure, except that there were little or no contact and no hostility between groups. This was an adaptation to small, sparse populations, and also insured that inbreeding and infanticide was kept at low levels. The groups consisted of 1-3 females in reproductive age, 1-3 males in reproductive age, children and elderly people. The females probably were related while the males dispersed to other groups at maturity. They matured late and lived long. Their diet was primarily based on meat, and they became adapted to this diet. The group most likely stayed together most of the time, and participated in both hunting, herding and other activities as a unit. There wasn't much aggression within the group or with other groups. Neanderthals were cold adapted in various ways. They probability spent the winter in low-activity mode, and built-up supplies during good times. The warm adapted species The warm adapted species changed
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:37:23 GMT -5
The warm adapted species changed from a promiscuous primate species to a monogamous, pair bonded species. This provided the most efficient solution in their environment. This species evolved from Homo Erectus to anatomical modern humans (Hss). In the process of increasing their brain, or maybe as a means of reducing parasite loads, they became naked. They lived a nomadic life-style in larger tribes. Their way of living provided advanced social adaptations. Men were hunters, and women gathered and cared for babies. With those roles, came male alliances and warfare. It was more of a rule to find one's partner within the tribe than in another tribe. This lead to evolution of the modern status concept and hierarchies. It also lead to aggression between males, and provided the basis for ethnocentric ideas and racism. The offspring developed fast, and they could reproduce fast. Hss were a patriarchal species and behaved like chimps in several respects. Homo Sapiens At 130,000 years ago, a global warming started. This resulted in the melting of the ice-cores over Eurasia. At 125,000 years ago, we find Neanderthals in Finland. In Africa there is a couple of skulls in Herto that are dated to 160,000 years, but these are not fully modern. It is very likely that the warm interglacial resulted in migrations of Herto-looking humans out of Africa and into South Asia and Near East 130,000 years ago, similar to the Neanderthal migrations north. Based on archaeological evidences, it seems most reasonable to assume that modern humans originated somewhere in Asia. We have evidences of the first truly modern-looking human skull in China around the interglacial (Liujiang) Modern humans formed when they hybridized with the archaic Asian Homo erectus population. As the interglacial ended, the new population was pushed back into refugee areas in Southern Asia and Middle East. We find modern humans at Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel at the end of the interglacial. These modern humans also hybridized with Neanderthals in Near East, before being pushed back into Africa. Today the closest descendants of these people are San/Bushmen of South Africa, and South Asian populations. These people brought Neanderthal traits from the hybridization that took place back into Africa, and it explains why San of today looks like Asians. At 74,000 years ago most of their genetic diversity in Asia was lost, and they got partitioned into two groups by the Toba eruption. Not until 50,000 years ago had this population picked up enough inventions from neighbouring Neanderthal and Homo erectus groups to be able to survive further north. With those innovations it became possible for them to compete with Neanderthals in Europe and Northern Asia. 35,000 years ago, modern humans is found in Europe [Climate during the last 420,000 years] [The Herto skull dated to 160,000 years from Ethiopia is not fully modern] [Liujiang date to the previous interglacial] [Skhul and Qafzel modern humans] [Wolf cave in Finland] Could Neanderthals really be a true species? Researchers claim modern man and Neanderthals were isolated for 700,000 years. Coyotes and wolves have been isolated for 1 million years, and far more generations, but can still produce fertile offspring. The main reason there were so little interbreeding that it's no long detectable, is reinforcement. Reinforcement is a resistance against hybrids that is driven by selection. This resistance is not tied to hybrids being impossible, rather to hybrids being negative for the individual. Often females in the rare species develops this resistance first. If you count with both this effect, and the less fitness of most offspring, advantageous hybrid offspring would be rare. Theoretically, a single hybrid offspring which could reproduce would be enough to transfer positive alleles from Neanderthals to modern humans. Because of this, it's no longer possible to trace hybrids with mitochondria-DNA analysis or origin of neutral alleles. Current research also reveals that hybrids doesn't need to look like hybrids. [Cross-species mating may be evolutionarily important and lead to rapid change][Local copy] [Study suggests mtDNA studies can indicate false replacement in a hybridization scenario] [Genetic study show two emigrations from Africa][Local copy] [Henry Harpendings genetic analysis also show interbreeding][Local copy] [Bela Lukács about Hungary's history][Local copy] [Description of reinforcement][Local copy] [Mammal species barriers are behavioural][Local copy] [Pre-modern human alleles found in today's genome][Local copy] [Local copy] [Stan Gooch about hybridization][Local copy] [Wolf-dog hybrids][Local copy] [SLE is important in species creation][Local copy] [Lion populations interbreed after 100,000 years of separation] [Lions and tigers can hybridize after 5 millions years of divergence] [Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of Origins of Species] Archaeological evidence
The cold-adaptations of Hn obviously evolved gradually. They are already seen to some extent one million years ago in Iberia. The 500,000 years divergence of mtDNA lineages between Africa & Neanderthals support the idea of a northern cold-adaptation starting before 0.5 million years ago.
There is evidence for isolated Neanderthal groups and larger social networks of UP modern humans. This evidence consists of long-distance trading of materials, which is usually absent in the Neanderthal culture. Large social networks is indicative of male aliances. The relative isolation in Neanderthal fits pretty well with a matrilinear, exogamous group structure, which must isolate itself to work.
There are several evidences against the idea that Neanderthal adapted to cool climate with fire and cloth in Eastern Europe
The evidence from fires indicates they were not primarily aimed at keeping warm. In UP settings, there is a central fire & evidence of isolated shelters. None of this is seen in Neanderthal's Mousterian technology. Their fires are usually found at arbitrary locations, and there is no evidence of activity constrained to shelters. The evidence seems to indicate Mousterian sites were indeed "open-air", and not built with tents & central heating. There is no evidence for new technology as Neanderthals migrated to colder climates. This seems to indicate their adaptations was not cultural, because this would leave traces of innovations in technology, but rather physiological.
Many sites were abondonded by Neanderthals when climate got worse. It's possible this reflect that Neanderthal cold adaptations wasn't enough to cope with the changes. Side-scrapers might have been used for hide preparation, although there is more evidence they were used for wood-working in Western Europe. Furs without advanced sewing techniques would be insufficient for cold adaptation, and there is no compelling evidence for Neanderthals sewing in Eastern Europe.
According to micro-wear studies, the predominant use of stone tools was not as weapons, rather wood-working. "Desolate landscapes" also presents compelling evidence that Neanderthals "prey" were in their best age, something that is definitely not normal in a carnevorious species. The mammals they "hunted" were frequently now domestic or domesticable animals (horse, bison (bovine), goat and sheep). Wolf remains are found at a majority of the sites. Small animals are infrequent. In fact, all the ingrediences of modern pastoral practises are found:
Wood-working for shelters and fences Rodeo-type injuries from wrestling large animals Flutes and whistles for calling upon animals Animals killed & eaten at the top of their usability Many of the bones are of currently domestic species, and several of these "speciated" during the Neanderthal era High-protein diet of Neanderthals The East European archeological record tells us a lot about the origin of the Aurignacian industry, as well as of West European Cro-magnons. According to "out-of-eden", the origin of Cro-magnon is not in Middle East, rather South Asia. If this is correct, we should find the origin of the Aurignacian industry in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. "Desolate landscapes" definitely supports this idea. Unlike in Europe, modern humans in Eastern Europe didn't start out with UP technology. They started out with Mousterian industries (Neanderthal technology). There are several sites that resembles the European Szeletian industry believed to be originated by Neanderthals. Only in Eastern Europe, these industries evolved into UP industries gradually, and there is little doubt that the final industry was practised by Hss.
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:38:06 GMT -5
Geographical correlation Neanderthals have been found in Europe and Middle-East. Europeans have also mass-emigrated to America and Australia. There are no active web-sites in black Africa on AS or ADHD and only a few about Autism. The black population in America has a considerably lower prevalence. [Neanderthal Home Turf] [Neanderthals and Modern Humans] [International Asperger links] [Autism in other languages] Culture and ethnical groups Generalist versus specialist species Humans are a generalist species that can live on a variety of foods and in a variety of environments. To become a generalist species, you have to have diverse alleles. Diverse alleles can only be acquired by not wasting any opportunity to acquire all possible alleles from closely related species. As a side effect, there is frequently also only one species at any given time, since all other would be absorbed by hybridization. This of course fits very well into the human nature. Most humans are very strict with mating behaviors, and will not mate with someone who doesn't show the right behavior. This is the species-conservation part. There also is a minority who will mate with anybody / anything they find interesting and compelling. This group will handle the task of assimilation with other populations to maintain the large diversity in the genome. If you also add the fact that mammal species barriers are not genetic, but behavioral, this of course means that cro-magnon would not waste the opportunity to hybridize with Neanderthals nor would their ancestors had wasted that golden opportunity to increase diversity. The only difference between later assimilations that perhaps took hundreds of years was the time scale. The larger the behavioral and physical differences, the lesser chance that someone in one population would find someone in the other population compelling. Successful hybridization of course also relies on the offspring being accepted and getting a mate. For this reason Neanderthal assimilation took tens of thousands years instead of hundreds. The long hybridization time means that hybridization was unusual, and all hybrids were back-bred into one of the populations. Forming separate hybrid-populations wasn't possible, since it was very unlikely one hybrid would meet another. For this reason, researchers will never find any populations which are morphological mixes.. After 3-4 generations, a back-bred hybrid offspring will become indistinguishable from other people. The hybridization zone Europe and the Middle-East formed the primary hybridization zone. From there both culture and genetic material spread to Far-East Asia, Australia and America. The genetic material did not significantly get back into Africa though, and this provides a means to verify that this is an correct assumption. The exception to this is the emigration from Europe at the end of the ice-age, the Arabic emigration from Middle East, and the colonization. Cro-magnon had a high degree of inbreeding, and this is still reflected in a small variation in neutral alleles and mitochondria DNA. This is falsely seen as evidence that Neanderthals and cro-magnon did not mate and produce fertile offspring. The other result of hybridization, larger variation in selective-positive alleles is also seen. Most importantly, many alleles are local, and many of those alleles does not occur in Africa. Another effect of this hybridization is rapid development of technology and art seen in Middle-East and Europe. Later on, the most advanced cultures evolved in the hybridization zone. [Stone-age art] [Allele frequency database] Development of today's culture The original hybrids kept their nomadic ways of life. As time passed, more and more people took on the Neanderthals way of life, and became territorial. They started to experiment and cultivate grains, and thus the next phase could start. Without the hybridization they would continue to be mobile, just like the African population have remained until recent times. The reason for this is the large difference between the social organization of mobile and territorial primate species. Thus a species cannot easily switch from a mobile to a territorial strategy without great problems. After some time big empires started to form and monuments are built. There are several thousands of years between those cultures. They start in Sumeria, spread to Middle East and Egypt, then move to Central and East Asia, and the last ones are found in America, and this can easily be explained by the fact that the genetic material and right conditions took longer to reach the Maya-Indians in Central America than to Sumeria, where the East-European population settled after the glacial maximum. In fact, to build large monuments like the pyramids, there needed to be a change in cultural and religious beliefs from those found in traditional African culture. This involve changing from being nomadic to territorial and changing from beliefs in ancestors and the group to beliefs in heroes and kings. A big king which is almost regarded as god himself, is against the traditional African religion, but it's essential for the construction of advanced cultures and especially those who were able to create large monuments like the pyramids. So here we have a reason why the change in genetic material didn't make any change in culture. The traditional culture didn't change although some people had a genetic build-up that didn't fit into this culture. It took long time for any change to take place, but ultimately it occurred, and then occurred at the same time at various places, except in Africa, where there were no need to change cultural beliefs. In Africa, this change didn't happen until they were colonized. [Africans were mobile until recently][Local copy] [Neanderthals were territorial][Local copy] [Primate's social behaviors] [African Traditional Religion] [Reincarnation in African Traditional Religion][Local copy] [Sumerian cultures] [Timeline of the first civilizations] [Sumerian mythology][Local copy] [Religion in Chad][Local copy] [The Maya culture][Local copy] [The Viking culture] Music and dancing In Africa, music and dancing is mostly tied to rites, that are performed in certain social contexts, and they are exclusively aimed at social activities. This is also evident in black music in America, where social relations are the main theme, while complex music and instruments are typical of non-African music. In Africa, the main instruments are drums and the human voice, while outside of Africa, there is a variety of complex instruments, dances and music, that are more aimed at entertainment, creativity and perfection. 90,000 - 100,000 years ago Neanderthals had phalange whistles. 41of them have been found in Prolom II in the Crimea. 70,000 - 80,000 years ago there is a flute in Haua Fteah, Libya, which has been found together with Neanderthal mandibles. Finally, 40,000 years ago there is another flute in Divje Babe. Interestingly, both the phalange whistles and flutes seems to have been evolving gradually up until recent times. This seems to indicate they originated in Neanderthals, and where taken over by AMH or hybrids. It's probable that Neanderthals primary use of musical instruments wasn't for entertainment or music, rather as a way to herd animals. This tradition is still seen in today's herding societies. [Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59, 1993, pp 17-37, p. 33-34] [Music timeline] [Neanderthal flute][Local copy] [History of Black Music in America][Local copy] Cave art A popular theory for the origin of cave art is hunting. The problem is that majority of the animals in cave art are not depicted in hunting settings. It looks much more like someone is trying to impress with how many (domestic) animals they have in their possession, and thus it's a kind of status display. Pastoralism thus seems like a more reasonable motivation behind cave art. A hunter wanting to depict his hunting skills would naturally want to paint animals in hunting settings, and would focus on dangerous animals like bears. The animals depicted in cave art are instead mostly horse, bison and cows, which are now domestic. Predators are infrequent. [African rock art much younger than European] [Cave art depicts now domestic species] [More cave art, and no hunting] [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/archeosm/en/fr-cosqu1.htm] [http://perso.wanadoo.fr/frederic.s/gouy/plan.htm] [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/cussac/fr/notice1.htm] [http://www.niaux.net/grotte/index.htm] [http://www.univ-tlse2.fr/utah/bedeilhac/Bed_AP.html] Feeling of belong together Relations between people with AS / ADHD works a lot better than relations with normals. Many feel they belong to another population. AS is sometimes referred to as a wrong planet syndrome. [How to understand people who are different]
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:39:31 GMT -5
Genetic evidence
Major bottlenecks explain worldwide diversity
The major bottleneck is around 74,000 years ago. This probably coincidences with the Toba volcano eruption in Indonesia. The Toba volcano eruption is the largest eruption in the last 2 million years. It probably resulted in worldwide temperature falls of 3-5 degrees centigrade for many years. It would affect Africa the least, and Neanderthals and Asian populations much more.
The second bottleneck is basically an European thing. It's the last glacial maximum 20,000 years ago. This bottleneck would mostly be seen in populations that wasn't affected too much by the Neolithic expansion, like Basque.
The third bottleneck is present day hunter-gatherers, that got marginalized by farmers.
These bottlenecks are sufficient to explain the largest diversity in Africa, as well as the smallest in Europe. It's also evident that mitochondrial-DNA and Y chromosome histories beyond a major bottleneck will be unreliable, unless you use ancient material. Nuclear DNA is a better choice, since it has larger effective population sizes.
[Study of bottlenecks] [The Toba volcano eruption] Mitochondria-DNA
Studies of Neanderthal and modern humans mitochondria-DNA shows small differences. In a population based on 700 Eurasians and 240 Africans, all Neanderthal mutations in the youngest Neanderthal from Russia is present except one. Additionally, the analysis show that the genetic difference is smaller between late Neanderthals and moderns than between older Neanderthals and moderns. This is not compatible with a replacement theory.
[Revaluation of Neanderthal mitochondria-DNA][Local copy] [Study of ancient Australians gives strange results][Local copy] [Mitochondria-DNA sequences of Neanderthals and various populations] Y chromosome
A study shows ancient origins more than 100,000 years ago of a set of Y-chromosome mutations not found in Africa. This is indicative of Neanderthal and / or Asian Erectus contribution to our genome.
[Y chromosome biallelic polymorphism][Local copy]
PDHA1 shows hybridization
PDHA1, located on the X-chromosome, shows two very distinct polymorphisms. One exist in both Africa and outside of Africa, while the other only exist outside of Africa. The African version show large diversity, while the non-African version seems to be introduced 50 000 years ago. The common ancestor of the two versions dates more than a million year back in time.
[PDHA1 shows population subdivision][Local copy]
Basque alleles
Many of the Basque-unique alleles are 10,000 to 34,000 years old. The center of this interval matches the bottleneck in Iberia during the ice-age maximum. Basque alleles are also found in Celt, Scandinavians and in North African Berbers.
[Evidence of pre-Neolithic component in Basque][Local copy]
Hemochromatosis - HFE
Researchers believe that Hemochromatosis originated at least 40,000 years ago in the area we now know as Ireland with a single ancestor. This means this ancestor was a Neanderthal, since Neanderthals would have had great advantage for efficient absorption of iron. The reason Neanderthals needed efficient iron absorption was their frequent injuries during close-combat hunting. Indeed, the cure of hemochromatosis is to loose blood.
[Hemochromatosis originate in Celts][Local copy]
Factor V Leiden
Factor V Leiden was introduced in the Northern European population 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. This is in a time when there was no people in Northern Europe, since Northern Europe was covered by ice. It instead coincidences with the cohabitation with Neanderthals, and Northern Europeans have a lot of Neanderthal heritage.
According to one study, hemochromatosis is found together with Factor V Leiden far more often than expected by chance.
Factor V Leiden and Hemochromatosis both are advantageous if you live on a low-iron diet. One possibility is that if you are a homozygote carrier of both alleles, you won't have any of the problems associated with them.
[Description and age of Factor V Leiden][Local copy] [Association between hemochromatosis and Factor V Leiden][Local copy] Friedreich Ataxia - FRDA
Freidreich Ataxia (FA), developed on a common haplotype only found in Europe, North Africa and Middle East. It has been dated to 10,000 to 25,000 years ago. It therefore seems plausible that it was introduced into Europe by hybridization with Neanderthals, and later spread to North Africa and Middle East with the evacuation of Europe at the glacial maximum.
FA, like hemochromatosis, is associated with iron transport. The primary cause of FA seems to be oxidative damage by free radicals. Iron accumulation in the mitochondria is also seen in organs were this gene is active.
Most likely, a complex was broken in the hybridization process. Either there was a protective allele in Neanderthals against free radicals, or some mutation in the mitochondria protected them. In the first case, this allele might still be in the modern human gene pool, in the second, it was lost in the hybridization process.
[General description][Local copy] [More elaborate description with age] [Study of age][Local copy] ADHD - DRD4 VNTR
DRD4 has two main alleles 4R and 7R, where 7R is associated with ADHD. It requires six mutations to transfer 4R to 7R, and this is very improbable. There also is no intermediate versions. The estimated age of 7R is 30 000 - 50 000 years, and this fits with the time of the hybridization. Both 4R and 7R occurs in frequencies that indicates they are both ancient.
[DRD4 7R is associated with Neanderthals and ADHD][Full text copy]
Cystic fibrosis - CFTR
Cystic fibrosis is a very diverse genetic disease. It's estimated to have been introduced 50 000 years ago in Europe. Cystic fibrosis also bears many similar properties to celiac, and might in fact be related to gluten-intolerance. The purpose of CF probably was to protect against infection and parasites. CF is associated with high levels of salt in sweat, and this probably formed some sort of protection, if left on the skin.
[Cystic fibrosis origin][Local copy] [Autism suspectible gene close to cystic fibrosis gene][Local copy]
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:40:07 GMT -5
Rhesus factor
Rhesus negative blood is found in 15% of the caucasian population, and in over 25% of the Basque population. It's rare in native Indians, Asians and Africans. A rhesus negative mother will have immunological problems if she gets a rhesus positive child. This forms a barrier for hybridization into the Neanderthal population. Over 50% of people with schizophrenia are rhesus negative, and there are indications of similar frequencies in autism and Asperger.
[Rhesus factor in various populations][Local copy] [Rhesus incompability linked to schizophrenia][Local copy] Skin color, hair color, freckles and eye color - MC1R
Since red/auburn hair and fair skin are related to 3 mutations in MC1R (R151C, R160W and D294H) and the origin of those mutations are 50,000-100,000 years, they were introduced by hybridization with Neanderthals. Blue eyes and freckles are also related to MC1R through an increased risk for skin cancer. From the number of silent mutations in African versions of the MC1R gene, Dr. Rogers and two colleagues, Dr. David Iltis and Dr. Stephen Wooding, calculate that the last sweep probably occurred 1.2 million years ago, when the human population consisted of a mere 14,000 breeding individuals. In other words, humans have been hairless at least since this time. 1.2 million years ago is similar to the time of the split between the cold and warm adapted population. This might mean that nakedness was the factor that started the divergent evolution between cold and warm adapted humans.
[Red hair and fair skin are risk-factors for skin cancer][Local copy] [Blue eyes and freckles are also risk-factors for skin cancer][Local copy] [Study of skin cancer and hair colors genetic basis][Local copy] [Redheads are Neanderthal][Local copy] [More about the red hair origin study][Local copy] [Rosaling Hardins home page] [Selective sweep in MC1R 1.2 million years ago] Phenylketonuria - PKU
From an article about PKU we read: "He collected samples from 430 patients in different institutions and found the green color in eight Most of the patients were of fair complexion, with a tendency to eczema, broad shoulders, a stooping figure and spastic gait. All were mentally retarded". Eczema, stooping figure and PKU (an european genetic defect) are obviously related. Another study concludes that poor control PKU and autism show similar manifestations in Block Design and Comprehension.
[PKU and autism show similar manifestations] [PKUs relation to morphological traits] Huntington's Disease
Huntington's Disease (HD) is of western European origin. It has a prevalence of 15 per 100,000 in some western European populations. It's rare in Asians and Africans. HD evolved on a specific haplotype background, that is prevalent in European populations only. HD protects against cancer and infectious disease. It's very possible this allele, in conjunction with alleles to protect against it's adverse effects, was the key to Neanderthal's longer life-span. It's also a key for their protection against infectious disease, needed because they also carried CF (Cystic Fibrosis) alleles. It might even play a key role in Neanderthal's abilities to hibernate. EPA and DHA protect brain areas affected by HD in hibernating mammals. These same substances are believed to play a role in relieving ADHD symptoms.
[Huntington protects against cancer and infection] [Protective gene against the adverse effects] [Prevalence and origin of Huntington] [Hibernation and Huntington] Psoriasis
Psoriasis has a 1 - 2 % prevalence in European descent, and much less in other ethnical groups. It's also believed to be located on chromosome 6 in the HLA region.
[Prevalence of psoriasis]
Multiple Sclerosis
Prevalence is highest in European-descent populations, although it increases with latitude.
[Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis]
IgA, celiac, autoimmune diseases and autism
There are quite a few studies that confirms a link between low IgA levels and autoimmune diseases, like Celiac Disease (CD). There are also studies that confirms many autistics have lower than normal IgA levels. The link between low IgA levels and otitis media is also interesting.
Celiac, also known as gluten intolerance, is often found in people with ADHD and AS. A study indicates that 71% of celiac children, when newly diagnosed, demonstrate EEG abnormalities. The disease mostly affects people of European descent, and occurs more rarely in black and Asian populations. This co incidents with the probable distribution of Neanderthal genes. It's believed that the origin of celiac hunter populations.
[Study of IgA and autoimmune diseases][Local copy] [Populations with Celiac][Local copy] [Origins of Celiac (hunters)][Local copy] [Autism and Celiac][Local copy] [Naturopathy and Autism][Local copy] [ADD and Celiac][Local copy] [Naturopathy and ADD][Local copy] [ADD and Nutrition] [Ketogenic diet][Local copy] [Celiac and epilepsy][Local copy] [Spontaneous abortion and Celiac][Local copy] Original Neanderthal hybrid populations
Matriarchal societies is a prime indicator of Neanderthal genes. These cluster to Europe, Near East and the Arctic, and usually disappear with agriculture.
[Study of matriarchal societies world-wide]
San/Bushmen
These people's are often believed to be some of the original Africans, but many of their traits speaks against this idea. They resemble, to European eyes at least, east Asians. They have yellowish rather than black skin, epicanthic folds, shovel-shaped incisors, and many newborns have "Mongoloid spots" at the base of the spine. The Asian appearance is not just a perception of Europeans. In the !Kung language there are three kinds of mammals: !a is an edible animal like a warthog or a giraffe, !oma is an inedible animal like a jackal, hyena, black African, or European, and zhu is a person. Vietnamese in Botswana were immediately identifed as zhu by Bushmen. In other words, their perception of their similarity to Asians is the same as ours (i.e. Europeans').
[Genetics group Bushmen
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:41:14 GMT -5
Original Neanderthal hybrid populations
Matriarchal societies is a prime indicator of Neanderthal genes. These cluster to Europe, Near East and the Arctic, and usually disappear with agriculture.
[Study of matriarchal societies world-wide]
San/Bushmen
These people's are often believed to be some of the original Africans, but many of their traits speaks against this idea. They resemble, to European eyes at least, east Asians. They have yellowish rather than black skin, epicanthic folds, shovel-shaped incisors, and many newborns have "Mongoloid spots" at the base of the spine. The Asian appearance is not just a perception of Europeans. In the !Kung language there are three kinds of mammals: !a is an edible animal like a warthog or a giraffe, !oma is an inedible animal like a jackal, hyena, black African, or European, and zhu is a person. Vietnamese in Botswana were immediately identifed as zhu by Bushmen. In other words, their perception of their similarity to Asians is the same as ours (i.e. Europeans').
[Genetics group Bushmen with Asians] [Bushmen lack genetic signal of expansion, like non-African groups] [Description of LSA and MSA in Africa] [Bushmen are related to Hamites] [African rock art much younger than European, and possibly introduced with Bushmen] [Bushmen rock art] [Bushmen and live stock introduction into South Africa] Basque
Basque in addition to having many private alleles from Neanderthals, also have a very old flute in Isturitz. This flute is similar to both the older Neanderthal flute, and the later Basque txistu flute. The Basque language is distinct from all other languages. Their language is also special since it originally didn't contain any abstract words. Basque has also for a long time been leading in musical and other creative activities in Europe. The Basque words for dog, sheep, cow, bull, horse and hen seems unrelated to other Indo-European languages, while cat, pig and duck looks like loan-words. This indicates the first group of animals already were domesticated before the end of the last ice-age.
[The Isturitz flute] [Basque language] [Basque culture] Berber
Berbers most likely originate from Iberia during the ice-age maximum. Mitochondria-DNA evidence shows that Berbers have U5, U6, pre-V and V haplotypes. U5, pre-V and V is in another study believed to be of European origin, and U6 is found in Iberia. There is also evidence of blue eyes and red hair in Berbers.
[Origin of European mtDNA lineages] [Origin of Berber mtDNA lineages] [Recolonization of Europe] [Spread of pre-V and V] [Some Berbers have red hair and blue eyes] Guanchos
Guanchos came to the Canaries a long time ago. When first encountered, they used stone-age tools, lived in cave-shelters, and lacked many Neolithic inventions. However, they had dogs, sheep, pig, goat, wheat, barley, pea and bean. They also display many features of Northern Europeans / Celts. It also looks like their language is closely related to the Berber language. Women have the higher status characteristic of Neanderthal and Neanderthal ancestry. They used the lunar calendar of the original moon-culture. They liked music and dancing. "The Canary" originates from them.
[Guanchos]
Kurd
The original Kurd language might have been the predecessor of other Caucasian languages. One possibility is that after development of agriculture, they spread to the area where we later find Caucasian language's origin. In any case, Kurd today lives where East Europeans emigrated during the ice-age maximum. Kurd women have more power and freedom than other Arabic women. Kurd and Basque has managed to stay together for extended periods of time, even through many invasions and foreign rulers. Another interesting thing is that a mountain location with cold winters is present both in Basque and Kurd. This seems like a perfect refuge for cold-adapted Neanderthal-hybrids.
[Origin of Kurd] [Kurd women have a better situation] [Kurd and Jew is closely related] Romani
Romani have high prevalence of psychiatric "disorders". They have kept their identity for thousands of years. According to a report 4,625 years, but this age is based on an incorrect increase of mutation rate in mitochondiria DNA by a factor 3. Therefore the correct figure should be 14,000 years, or 6,000 to 22,000 years with 95% CI. Romani have many specific genetic disorders, are badly treated in basically all societies. They have for a long time been involved in music, just like Basque and autistic people. They also occasionally have red hair. A probable reason for their accumulation of Neanderthal genes, is that they like autistic people, were placed at the bottom of society. There is no evidence that the ancestor population in Northern India has large amounts of Neanderthal genes.
[Origin of gypsy]
Etruscan
Etruscans according to most sources have lived long in Italy. Probably several thousand years, since their language is not related to other indo-European languages. Women had higher status and were better treated. This is in conformance with Neanderthals and matriarchy. Their sexual activities are quite similar to bonoboo's, which in turn might be similar to Neanderthals. Many gods were female, and many of the goddesses were not continued by the Romans, while many male gods were The moon is part of their deities The number 13 of the original moon culture had been replaced by 12. Music and dancing is a fundamental part of their life, just as theatre. Those are activities associated with other large Neanderthal-descent populations as well, like Basque, Celt and Romani. The flute is a key instrument, and the flute originated in Neanderthals.
[General Etruscans information] [Sexual attitude of etruscans][Local copy] [Lemnos - a matriarchal society][Local copy]
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Post by Human on Dec 30, 2004 10:41:55 GMT -5
Minoans
The Minoan culture flourished on Crete until 1450 BCE when the volcano Santorini erupted. It seems to have been a relatively peaceful culture, and nowhere do we find evidence of warefare. It also seems quite likely women occupied important positions in the society. The Minoan culture also seems to have developed a highly accurate calendar, and advanced mathematics. They had a non-indoeuropean language, that nobody yet has been able to decipher.
[General Minoan information] [Women in Minoan culture] [The Bronze Age Computer Disc] Palaeo Eskimo (the Dorset people)
The Palaeo-Eskimo was the population living in the Canadian arctic between 2000 BC and 1000 AD. They seemed to be a genuinely cold-adapted population. They were probably related to other Eskimo population like Tlingits and Saami. Their area of origin might very well be somewhere in Caucasus or Central Asia.
The most interesting issue is how these Palaeo-Eskimos survived the winter. This is very relevant to Neanderthals as well. Since these people lived in an area with no trees, and hadn't invented sea mammal fuels, it's unconceivable they could keep themselves warm without some genetic adaptations. In fact, torpor, hibernation or at least months of inactivity must have been their way of surviving. Considering outside temperatures could easily drop to -30 degrees Celsius, with frequent blizzards, and months of total darkness, they would simply die of cold and starvation very fast if they didn't have special adaptations.
Indeed, it seems likely they got those special adaptations from Neanderthals. Their region of origin is quite right. As soon as they started to live under extreme conditions in the arctic, individuals lacking those special adaptations would quickly be selected against.
The Dorset people's demise is also quite telling, and might in fact be a parallel to what happened to Neanderthals. The large, war-oriented Inuit groups obviously drove out the peaceful Dorset people to less favorable hunting-grounds, and they become extinct after a couple of centuries.
There are several indications that the Palaeo Eskimos were matriarchal.
[Ancient People of the Arctic]
Neanderthal symbiotic animal relations
All domestication of animals took place in Eurasia and America, and none in Africa. Of 14 domestic species, 13 originates in Eurasia, and one in America. All the mitochondria DNA lineages also go back more than 100,000 years. This means Neanderthals are the prime candidate of original animal domestication or symbiosis.
Dog
Cooperation with wolves were most likely a key to the ability for Neanderthals to survive in the cold Europe. Genetic research shows that dog and wolf parted 135,000 years ago. They also reveal that the dogs ancestor is the European gray wolf. There are wolf remains close to Neanderthals, but not with the pray. This probably means the wolf had a special relation with humans. There are also big similarities between Neanderthal preys and wolves preys.
A new analysis of the dog origin places it between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago, obviously because of the belief that dogs must change morph in a domestication scenario. The main problem with this reasoning is that there is no evidence for a special dog phenotype older than 14,000 years, and analysis of American historical dogs claim they have an Eurasian origin. They must then have been brought with the settlers that crossed the Bering strait 15,000 years ago. It's also unlikely that the common dog psychological traits can have evolved in just a few thousands years.
It's quite interesting that dogs are sensitive to human cues, and that some humans (autistic mainly) are sensitive to dog's cues. This tells us that the original relation between dogs and humans was not as domesticator / domesticated, rather like a symbiotic relation. This view is also presented in "dogs" by Raymond and Lorna Coppinger. They believe dogs first appeared at humans campsites as scavengers. I think this view is fully compatible with early symbiotic relations between dogs and humans. What's more, the selection would not be anything like traditional breeding. The tamest animals would be most successful in this new environment, but selection on body-shape would not occur. Those first dogs would not look anything different from their wild wolves cousins in the archeological record.
The book "dogs" also describes how difficult it is to make wolves friendly toward humans. They must be taken very early from the den, and trained for months. Even after this, they will still not be suitable as pets. This must be carried out generation after generation with selection for the most tame ones. There must also be artificial breeding, which would be rather troublesome. I think it's inconceivable that ancient hunter-gatherers would go into this trouble, without even having any great benefit from it.
[Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution] [The dog's origin][Local copy] [New analysis which incorrectly assumes dogs has to change morph] [Dogs can read human body language but not wolves] [Wolves behavior][Local copy] [Wolves prey] [Neanderthals prey][Local copy] Cattle
Mitochondria DNA analysis shows that Bos taurus (domestic cow), has a common ancestor between 10,100 and 37,600 years ago. This matches the bottleneck cattle went through when the European population had to leave at the end of the ice-age.
African and European cattle had a common ancestor 22,000 - 26,000 years ago. That matches well with the last glacial maximum. It seems conceivable this is the result of cattle and people migrating together from Iberia to North Africa.
A study comparing Bos indicus and Bos taurus finds a common ancestor 117,000 - 275,000 years ago. The now extinct British Bos primigenius is more closely related to Bos taurus than is Bos indicus.
This means there are three primary breeds of domestic cattle:
The primary breed is found in Sumeria. This represent the original East European breed. In Southern Portugal as well as in North Africa there is another breed. This represents the original Iberian breed. The British extinct Bos primigenius represents a domesticated breed during the Neanderthal period. Another important factor is lactose intolerance. The lactose enzymes would evolve in parallel with cattle domestication. The most adapted people are of European and especially Scandinavian descent. Least adapted are Asians and Native Americans. Africans lie somewhere in between, mostly being intolerant [Genetic study of European and African cattle] [Genetic analysis of cattle origin][Local copy] [Lactose tolerant populations are found in the areas of original cattle domestication][Local copy] [Evidence of a North African breed of cattle][Local copy] Goat
Genetic evidence shows that three goat lineages go back 201,000 - 282,000 years in time. This can only mean goats were originally domesticated by Neanderthals, and similar to the cattle scenario, diverged in a North African, Sumerian and European breed.
[Genetic study of goat] Horse
Mitochondrial DNA lineages go back at least 300,000 years. A lot of the lineages are considerably older than 10,000 years when the horse was supposedly domesticated. This result seems to indicate Neanderthals were involved in horse domestication as well.
From the genetic study:
""D1 is another geographically striking mtDNA cluster (Fig. 3). It is widespread in our sample, but with a frequency maximum in Iberian (Andalusian and Lusitano) and North African horses (Barbs). As we might expect from the historical presence of the Spanish in North America, a relatively high percentage of American mustangs (31%) also belong to this cluster. It is noteworthy that only a small proportion of the Arabs belong in this cluster (around 5%), regardless of whether we define Arabs by breed or by geography. This genetic result is in accordance with the phenotype; Barb conformation is very similar to that of Iberians, whereas the phenotype of the Arabs is quite distinct from that of Iberians and Barbs"
This seems to confirm that horses migrated to North Africa and formed Barbs there. They couldn't have been introduced from Middle East with agriculture, since this mtDNA variant is rare in Arabs. This means horses where already domesticated at the last glacial maximum.
[Genetic study of horse] Medical plants
At the burial at Shanidar, a set of medical plants have been recovered.
Muscari
Grape hyacinth is a stimulant and diuretic. It's also been used historically to hide the snell of humans to prey.
Althea
Possibly Althea officiinalis or Marsh mallow. Used to treat inflammation, irritations of the mucous membranes, excess stomach acid, peptic ulceration and gastritis. Can also be applied externally to bruises, sprains, aching muscles, insect bites, skin inflammations and splinters.
Senecio
Ragwort or groundsel is used to relieve menstrual cramps and retards bleeding.
Achillea
Yarrow or milfoil is used as a stomach tonic and anti-diarrheal.
Centauarea
Possibly Centaurea cyanus or cornflower. Infusion is a stimulant, improving digestion and possibly supporting liver as well as resistance to infections. Anti-rheumatic.
Ephedra
A stimulant used for phychoactive purposes. Possibly used by Neanderthals to increase activity-level artificially, and could therefore have reduced their overall activity level over time. This can be an explaination for the need for Ritalina or Amphetamine in todays individuals with ADHD.
The Lost Civilization of the Stone Age][1999:219-220] [Plant description]
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